Why Should People Believe Your Vision?

We’ve talked about making a Vision emotional and memorable. We now move to making it credible. If it’s not credible, then people won’t put in the effort.

This draws a fine line: you want to stretch and inspire people, but you also want them to believe that what you say is possible. People are willing to put in superior effort for something that they really believe in, but once you tip that into the impossible, then all effort evaporates and you end up looking just plain stupid.

If Usain Bolt’s coach says “I think you can run 9.42 seconds for the one hundred metre dash, he trains his butt of, but if the coach says “I think you can run 7.31 seconds, Usain probably starts looking for another coach.

So how do we make sure it�s credible? Well, apart from just making sure that you set something that is within their reach, there are a few other tactics that you can employ.

Here are three.

1) Show Evidence

Why is it possible? People don’t mind being stretched if you can show them the plan. Sony said they wanted to �put a radio in your pocket�; Apple�s original plan was to put �1000 songs in a matchbox�; JFK said that the American people could �put a man on the moon�. These things sounded incredulous at the time, but people got behind them and made them happen. They believed in them.

And part of the reason they believed was because the leaders had a credible plan. They could see the steps involved and they could make a logical connection. Better yet, where possible, ask your people to come up with their own plan. They might just see the logic and be inspired.

2) Why this time?

Why should people believe that this time is going to be any different? This is a difficult challenge to surmount. Firstly, most employees are conditioned to believe that whatever new vision/mission/strategy you formulate really doesn�t mean anything. Unfortunately, too many managers say things are going to be different � but they rarely are. The big idea gets put in a drawer and everyone goes back to business as usual.

The only way to overcome this sort of apathy is to constantly show, through action and communication, that you are serious. Remember, it takes about 1000 repetitions to form a new habit, so changing people�s perceptions is a similar undertaking.

The other challenge to overcome is if a similar vision has been implemented in the past and failed. Why would it be different this time? In this case, showing the evidence (and possibly a sense of urgency) is the means by which you can show people that it truly is different this time.

3) Show them through stories

Whatever your Vision, you will find that you already have people who are displaying the behaviours that will help achieve it. Whether it’s an employee that is showing exceptional customer service commitment, or someone that has challenged the status quo and made the company a better place, these stories do two important things:

Firstly, they show people that it�s possible. People can listen to these and say �hey, they did it, so can I � maybe it�s not that hard.� Secondly, they give concrete parameters about what you expect to see from people in order to achieve the Vision. They positively reinforce the behaviours that you hope for.

There are many reasons why a Vision will fail. But if you do some of these things, you increase your chances of success dramatically. Make your Vision emotional, memorable and credible.

This is the third in the series on creating a Vision that means something.

For Part One �Vision, Emotion and the Five Million Dollar Question� � click here

For Part Two �Times Table, Humiliation and Two Tips for an Emotional Vision� � click here

Last week my wife was sick. So it was up to me to look after the kids (lunches, school drop off, pick up, organise activities for the ones not at school etc). But I also had a couple of impending deadlines that I had to meet. I juggled this for four days, and felt pretty proud of myself. However, when my wife finally rose from her sick bed (and I told her how easy her job was � big mistake), she pointed out that I hadn�t done a lot of things she usually does: Namely the washing and grocery shopping.

It wasn�t that I didn�t think these things were important, or that I didn�t really have time � I just didn�t �see� them. With all the other stuff going on, these things didn�t even get my attention, so they didn�t get done.

Our actions are the sum of what we pay attention to.

If we pay attention to the right things, and shut out distractions (the wrong things) we end up choosing the most productive behaviours. If we attend to the wrong things, the opposite happens.

Those domestic chores weren�t front of mind because they weren�t going to affect me that week, and they hadn�t affected me before. I didn�t pay attention to them.

Vision Front of Mind

In many ways, a Vision acts the same way for people. If the Vision is front of mind, we find ways to affect it more often. We look for opportunities to contribute, we find time to do things that actively help us work towards it. If it isn�t front of mind, it ends up like the washing � with no attention and therefore no effort.

In the last post, we discussed how to make a Vision appeal to emotion � thereby making it somewhat memorable. Here are two other tips keep it front of mind:

1)�� It needs to be short

If your Vision is more than a couple of sentences, then it is not going to be memorable. There is enough research to suggest that we only remember about 4-7 bits of information (words, numbers etc) at any given point in time. For a Vision � the shorter the better

2)�� Hang it on something people already know

In their breakthrough book �Made to Stick� the Heath brothers mention that information is easier to process if it attaches to something we already know.

Their example is in the description of a fruit called the �polemo�. The first explanation talks about the rind, the colour, the flesh etc and it gives you a certain interpretation. The second, more effective explanation merely says �a polemo is basically a supersized grapefruit with a very thick and soft rind.� Much easier.

If we can attach the Vision to things that people already know, we capitalise on current interpretations

3)�� Make it sound familiar

An extension of #2 above, the more you can make the vision sound like something they already know, the better. Think of current slogans, proverbs and popular culture and then try to design your vision to sound somewhat like those.

The limit of total attention is 90 minutes, but most people don’t even get close to this – we find it hard to get past 90 seconds! Through our ‘always on’ 21st century lifestyle, we’ve lost the ability to do this very well – we get distracted easily, we constantly try to multitask; in fact about 28% of our day is taken up with interruptions.

However, there’s good news. We can build our capacity to focus for intense periods. There are two ways to do this: 1) by constantly practicing, holding ourselves accountable and no getting distracted. This is hard. Or 2) one of the other ways that we can build our capacity for sustained attention is through meditation.

If you’re like me, you have no interest in practicing traditional meditation, but meditation has been described as ‘push ups for the brain’. It builds the ‘strength’ of our ability to focus and our performance is almost solely dependent on our ability to focus our attention on the right things at the right time.

100 breaths meditation is a quick and practical way to build focus.

Find a comfortable position (you can close your eyes or open them – it doesn’t matter) and then start counting your breathes backward from 100 to zero. You’ll get intruding thoughts as you do this, but simply acknowledge them, put them to the side and get back to your counting. You’ll find that as you practice, you’ll get better at shutting out distractions.

The bonus is that this simple 15 min exercise is one of the best ways to also decrease the stress response and will help you get to sleep at night, if your mind be hyper-active.

This is Part II in our series on creating a Vision that means something. See the related posts below for the others

We want people to remember our vision, right?

Well it pays to understand exactly what we remember and why. Think about these two things that I am sure you have no trouble remembering: 1) the equation 3×3=9, and 2) a time in your life when you were humiliated.

How do we learn?

Whether it is memory or motor skills, learning is the result of something called Long Term Potentiation (LTP). Very simply, as we learn (say, 3×3=9) we build a �pattern� of neural activity, which is essentially an electrical current. Now, at first this electrical current travels slowly � we may need to count 3×3 on our fingers � like the �wires� don�t carry the signal too well. But eventually 3×3=9 becomes automatic and at this point the �wires� seem to become super-conductive and the electrical signal literally races along the neurons. This is learning � or LTP � the neural pattern for a certain memory or behaviour is so well trained that it happens automatically. And it only takes place when the electrical signal is �strong� enough.

There are two ways that this electrical signal becomes �strong� enough.

Firstly, the signal itself may not be that strong, but if it happens over and over again, the cumulative effect can be strong enough. Take the case of 3×3=9. Why do you remember it? Because you have heard it so many times. While the signal isn�t that strong, the cumulative strength of hearing it over and over again is.

The other way is if the signal is so great that LTP happens immediately. For a signal to be this strong, it needs to be tied to an emotional signal. While 3×3=9 is not emotional, that humiliating event definitely was. So, although that event hasn�t happened over and over again (I hope), you still remember it vividly.

The Vision that you want people to remember needs to have the same components: it needs to be repeated often and it needs to be emotional, which is what I�m dealing with in this post.

How do we make a Vision appeal to emotion? Here are two tips:

1)���� Create an Imbalance

Most theories of motivation and behaviour propose that all behaviour and learning is the result of an imbalance between what we currently have and what we would ideally like to have. For the majority of workers, there is no imbalance � they are quite happy going about their work everyday.

To create an imbalance, we need to contrast what their position is currently, versus what it could be in the future. Painting a picture, and a contrast, between the current state and the potential future state is a surefire way to create an emotional response.

We all like to hold onto our positive self-perceptions and when we see a better alternative to what we have now, we are pulled in that direction.

One caveat � the future state has to reflect something that your staff actually wants.

2)���� Use common language

Consider these two differing statements that I heard recently at a management retreat:

a) “We set high business outcomes for our clients and we deliver on those expectations in a timely and complete manner”

Does that inspire you? Probably not. Now consider this alternative:

b) “We do what we say we’re going to do”

The second option actually makes you feel something and one of the reasons is that it uses common language. Or more accurately because it doesn�t use business-speak.

The problem with humans is that we have competing parts of our brains for emotions and logic. If you�ve ever had an emotional argument and left thinking: �I had so many great retorts, but I couldn�t think of them!� then you know this is true.� In fact, it is impossible for us to switch on our Limbic System (emotions) at the same time as our Pre-Frontal Cortex (analysis and logic).

Business-speak forces us to analyse. It makes us turn on the analytical part of our brain and this switches off the emotional part. A Vision with too much analytical language literally forces people to switch off emotionally.

To create a Vision that means something, you have to go out on a limb. That is why it is so hard. Go out on a limb to create something that means something emotionally to your people, set a path for something better, and go out on a limb and sound like a normal person instead of a manager.